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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26347396">Ice Queen</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowzone5/pseuds/snowzone5'>snowzone5</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Stranger Things (TV 2016)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Crying, F/M, Mileven, Modern AU, Swearing, soumates</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 04:15:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,451</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26347396</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowzone5/pseuds/snowzone5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>El is lost in the Antarctic after a helicoper crash. Mike is her rescuer</p>
<p>XXXXX</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Ice Queen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Idiot!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>El turned her away from the body and kept digging in the snow. She looked up at the sky. A bad storm was rolling in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She was making progress. She could feel the wind whistling around her as it went over the mound she had created with the snow. It would act as a lean-to.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She kept digging. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I think I might actually survive this. Well, if they look around for the beacon I will. I don’t think we traveled that far.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>El was starting to pant a little bit with the effort. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I can rest during the storm. But I won’t get to rest at all if I don’t finish.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She felt a hot breath on her face. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What? </span>
  </em>
  <span>She looked up.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The head of the biggest dog she’d ever seen was inches from her face. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Only it wasn’t a dog.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It had the colouring of a wolf. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Ok, first off, there are no wolves in Antarctica, certainly not native. Some  country would have had to introduce them to the continent, and even if they did, they were dooming it to die of starvation. Second, wolves aren’t this fucking big. What the fuck </span>
  </em>
  <span>is</span>
  <em>
    <span> that?</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Freya! Friend!” A deep voice said through the wind.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The dog/wolf  thing looked disappointed that it wasn’t going to get to eat her, but backed away.  El had been holding  her breath the entire time. As soon as she let it out. Another impossibly huge face took the  place of the first one.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Scratch  behind his ears!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She did so, and she could have sworn the dog/wolf thing smiled at her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok, he’s your protector now. He will do everything he can to keep you alive.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Who are you?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Your lord and saviour.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t need saving, so here’s a prayer. Fuck off.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah, the Ice Queen speaks. And doesn’t disappoint. But let me  give you some facts you may have forgotten about, or don’t even know about.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sure m’lord.” El tried to say it as sarcastically as possible.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“First. There is a storm coming in.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>This guy is brilliant.  He called me Ice Queen, so at least he knows that much. But he probably doesn’t know I’m </span>
  </em>
  <span>also</span>
  <em>
    <span> a meteorologist. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Second. You are, I think, the only survivor in a helicopter crash… probably due to the storm.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>No shit, Sherlock.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Third. You have friends in high places, </span>
  <em>
    <span>somebody</span>
  </em>
  <span> think that any amount of money is worth spending to save you and keep you alive.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Ok, that would be Max, funding this.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Fourth. It’s my job.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Ok, he’s dedicated. He may die with me, but he’s dedicated.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And fifth… “</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>
    <em>He's hesitating.</em>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Go ahead my saviour.” El thought she has just the right amount of sarcastic inflection in that one.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And fifth. I can’t let a pretty girl die if I can help it. I can’t let  </span>
  <em>
    <span>anybody</span>
  </em>
  <span> die if I can help it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Pretty? Did he just say I’m pretty?</span>
  </em>
  <span> El had nothing sarcastic to say. </span>
  <em>
    <span>There’s no way he’s seen my face out here. Or seen my body. But… when he said that last thing…  this is personal for him. Hmm, curiouser and curiouser.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She looked over at the dead body not six feet from her. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m wearing probably eleven hundred dollars worth of arctic gear. No way he knows me by sight. Only by his mission. He’s probably military.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok, you probably know what you’re doing. But I’m as warm as I can be, and I have food to keep going.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, warm, yeah, I can see that. But do you have an oxygen tank?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No…” El said, the hesitation in her voice even obvious to her. “It went up in the wreckage behind you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok, the wreckage is behind </span>
  <em>
    <span>you. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Which means you don’t really know what direction to travel in. That’s bad. The storm could cover you in an airtight blanket of twenty-five feet of snow. Enough sarcasm, Miss Hopper, I’m here to keep you alive and try to rescue you at the same time.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Am I in that much deep shit?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah. But I’ve been in much worse.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How deep? How far away am I from Vostok or McMurdo?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You crashed in a Mi-8AMTSh-VA helicopter. You managed to make it about one-hundred miles from the pole,  so you’re only about seven hundred from McMurdo. Beacon is on for the chopper. Nobody is going to attempt a rescue like this in the storm. I have a SAT beacon. Someone will find us… eventually. I expect to make it to McMurdo before they do though.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But, to answer your question, if you are anybody else I’d say you were in the deep end of the shit pool. But I’ve seen your file. You are only in the shallow end. Again, if you were anybody else, I’d say three to six months to get back.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But because I’m the Ice Queen?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We pool our resources and expertise, I think we can do it in two months. Assuming we don’t get a chopper rescue first. We are in a bad stretch of weather, so don’t hang your hopes on that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>El sighed. </span>
  <em>
    <span> He’s laid it out on the line. You don’t bullshit on this continent. Bullshit gets you dead.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok, I apologize for the flippant remarks. What’s first?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“First? I help you with your </span>
  <span>Quinzhee, and I get to sleep with the Ice Queen.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t let it go to your head, m’lord. You’re not getting lucky tonight.” But El was smiling when she said that.</span>
</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>XXXXX</span>
</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What about the dogs?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What dogs?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The two biggest dogs I’ve ever seen in my life? One wants to  eat me, the other you said wants to be my friend?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Freya and Tanx?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s their names?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yup. Freya and I have saved  each other’s lives more than I can count. She’s saved mine probably more than I’ve saved hers.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>El chuckled. “No wonder. Freya is a bitch. She doesn’t like me already.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“She’s jealous, she thinks I’ll want to be with you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>El didn’t say anything. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Shit. Will I be competing with a fuckin’ dog!?</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Tanx?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Freya’s mate. He  loves to be scratched behind his ears. You made a friend today.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok, I don’t want to sound stupid. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m not stupid. </span>
  </em>
  <span>But I’ve never seen dogs that big before.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No doubt. They aren’t dogs.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, they aren’t wolves.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh, actually they are. I do two things. I rescue people in bad situations in the cold. And I breed and raise  wolves specifically for that purpose.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>El was silent. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Wolves?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok, so, wolves. I didn’t think it could be done, but I’ll take your word for it. Why are they so fucking </span>
  <em>
    <span>big?</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They are Mackenzie Valley Wolves. Also known as a Canadian Timber wolf. They don’t get much bigger. These have been bred to be rescue wolves. There are trade offs.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Like?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The bigger the wolf, the more meat they eat.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok, suddenly the warm and fuzzy if the rescue wolves completely disappeared.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They are wild animals, you have to treat them that way. No matter how trained.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Dare I ask how you keep them from eating you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Half of what I carry is arctic survival gear.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And the other half?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Food.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>XXXXX</span>
</p>
<p><br/>
<br/>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m wearing over a thousand dollars worth of Arcitic gear. Tell me why you want me to take it off.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I want to see your naked body, and I’ll die freezing just to see it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>El blinked at him. Then smiled. “Haha, good one. You get a point. Now answer me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You are wearing more than a thousand dollars... plus I'd say of gear. My sleeping bag is a custom made double Snowy Owl. It will keep us alive and warm. We will be sharing body heat. We will both be denied that body heat if we wear our current gear.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is that the reason you are going to use?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well I have a back up reason.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Such as?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If we freeze to death during the night. We have human contact with someone who wanted to keep us alive. You already know that human contact counts for a lot down here.  These are onlyy good to minus sixty Fahrenheit. It could easily be colder tonight. You already know the ecological reason for that.  So your hot body heats me up, and in, turn my hot body keeps you alive.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>El chuckled. “I know. Global warming. Most people don’t get it. Ok. I assume we spoon? ”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah. And for Fuck’s sake, Just ignore the body part poking at your bum. It’s biology I can’t help it. </span>
  <em>
    <span>You</span>
  </em>
  <span> Miss Ice Queen aren’t not getting lucky tonight. No matter how much fun it would be out in this God forsaken land.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>El laughed. “Fair enough.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
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